|
|
Within a stone’s
throw: Lebanon right, Syria left
|
The
pristine source waters of the Al-Kabir River, originating from underground
springs and mountain tops, peacefully flow towards the Mediterranean Sea.
Forming a natural border between northern Lebanon and southern Syria, the waters
face a variety of threats during their short journey west. While the politicians
of both countries are now busy working out their long-standing political
tensions, their scientists are showing a high spirit of common Arab identity and
unity. They have joined forces to use modern remote sensing technologies to find
practical solutions for the transboundary water management of Al-Kabir’s
waters.
Up
in the mountains of northern Lebanon, Fadwa, a 40-year-old mother and housewife,
remembers when the waters of Al-Kabir passing by her house were clear. Fadwa
explained that she doesn’t allow her children to play in the river waters
anymore.
“The
Syrians started it by dumping raw sewage into the river about five years
back,” she complained. “Now the river waters are so dirty that we gave up
and started dumping our own garbage onto the sides of the river near our
home,” she added.
A
young Lebanese girl living at the mouth of the river gave a similar excuse.
“[The Lebanese government] has done nothing,” she said, dumping her pail of
garbage on the shores of the river near her home. This girl, like many others
living in the poorly served Akkar region of northern Lebanon, believes that it
is only the government who should be providing solutions for the region’s
waste problems. This blame game attitude demonstrated by the people of the
region is exactly what Dr. Mohamed Khawlie, director of Lebanon’s National
Center for Remote Sensing, wants to change.
“Community
solutions and small-scale, easily manageable plans for solid waste and
wastewater management [are needed],” said Khawlie. “The contribution of the
community should be significant,” he said. “If communities do not do what
they should be doing, give them the best science and it will be useless.
Communities must feel the ownership of what is affecting their living,” he
emphasized.
Cooperative
Research Involvement
|
|
|
The Akkar watershed
|
This
strong belief in the importance of community involvement formed a centerpiece
for the research conducted by scientists from the Lebanese National Council for
Scientific Research (NCSR) and the General Organization of Remote Sensing (GORS)
in Syria, together with researchers from Canada’s CadhamHayes Systems Inc.
(now Canadian Environmental Assistance). The research aimed at gathering
scientific data on the Al-Kabir River basin, known as the Akkar watershed. This
data would be used to create higher levels of awareness among the people of both
countries on the importance of conserving the watershed.
Two
public awareness workshops were held, one in Lebanon and another in Syria.
During these workshops, the scientists revealed disturbing results that were
emerging from their remote sensing studies and sampling that was being conducted
on the watershed. Although not suffering in quantity, the Al-Kabir waters were
severely suffering in quality.
Daunting
Results
|
|
|
Who
is responsible?
|
The
Al-Kabir River runs a westerly course originating at an elevation of
approximately 1700 meters in the mountains of the border area eventually
emptying its waters into the Mediterranean Sea. Along this course it travels
through scenic terraced mountains in the east; through the fertile alluvial
plain of Sahlet el Bqaiaa; a gorge in the basaltic plateau; and finally the
coastal Akkar plain, an extensive agricultural region.
The
researchers used remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) to
provide, for the first time, maps on the watershed’s drainage, geology, land
use, soil erosion, utilities, settlements, roads, and railways. Water and
sediment samples were also routinely taken from a large number of sites on both
the Syrian and Lebanese sides of the Al-Kabir River.
In
addition to discovering that the river was primarily fed by springs, a number of
disturbing results were revealed. Phosphorus and ammonium nitrogen levels, for
example, were found to be extremely high along the course of the river,
indicating pollution of the river with sewage. Bacterial coliform levels were
also extremely high from sewage waste. Also, the “flagrant disposal of solid
domestic waste directly into the river, on riverbanks, and on roadsides
throughout the watershed,” has resulted in high nitrite levels in the
Al-Kabir, the study revealed.
Agriculture
has also had its toll on the river waters. Nitrates, mainly from fertilizer use,
were revealed in high levels. Extensive irrigation has resulted in an early
onset of salinization in the coastal agricultural plain. DDT parent compound was
also found in the river sediment at higher levels than its metabolite. This, the
researchers say, indicates this banned substance’s continued use by local
farmers as a pesticide.
In
addition, high levels of nickel and chromium were discovered in the river
sediment. This has probably resulted from leather tanning and metal plating
activities that are active in the region. As a result of this large-scale
pollution, the groundwater in the Akkar watershed is at stake of becoming
polluted.
Hidden
Dangers
|
|
|
Local
farmers are unaware of the risk they are taking
|
In
Al-Obodiya, in the coastal plain of the watershed, a van drives up to a spring
that feeds the Al-Kabir. The water emanates from below a huge rock, toward which
a group of five workers proceed, carrying crates of green onions. The green
onions are lined up against the rock, and the workers start to clean them in the
cool, spring waters.
“These
people are unknowingly polluting both the spring and river waters,” commented
Khawlie, watching them diligently doing their work. “Agrochemicals from the
onions are getting into the spring and river water, and the already polluted
river waters are contaminating the onions,” he explained.
If
the current state of conditions is not soon changed, not only will the health
and the agriculture of the local populations be affected, but so will the plans
for constructing a dam on the Al-Kabir River. The waters that will be collecting
in the reservoir behind the dam will have even higher concentrations of
pollutants than the river waters, making the water unsuitable for human
consumption and contact. It will also lose its aesthetic value as a possible
tourist destination in the future due to the rancid, murky waters that will be
collecting behind its wall.
Solutions
The
researchers made a series of recommendations to policy-makers based on their
results to solve the problems of the Akkar watershed. Three phases of
implementation were recommended. The first phase calls for immediate clean-up of
the solid and sewage waste, in addition to the elimination of the use of DDT and
other banned agrochemicals. The intermediate phase involves the local
communities; changing their attitudes toward waste disposal and agricultural use
of pesticides and fertilizers, in addition to providing them with small-scale
community sewage treatment plants. The final stage is developing a protocol for
the bi-national sustainable management of the Akkar watershed.
Implementing
Research
John
Cadham, President of CadhamHayes Systems Inc. and the original driving force
behind the Akkar watershed study, believes that research can play an important
role in influencing decision-makers in their policy-making processes of
transboundary water management. However, the challenge, he believes, is how to
fund such efforts.
“In
my experience,” explained Cadham, “the cost of post-research lobbying is
equal
|
“The cost of post-research lobbying is equal to if not greater than the costs of the original research.”
John Cadham |
|
to
if not greater than the costs of the original research…So, there is a real gap
at this stage and consequently, one of the biggest detriments to effecting
meaningful change.”
Cadham
believes that researchers have a vital role to play in effecting meaningful
policy changes, but regrets that they are rarely equipped for the task.
“Translating research into policy recommendations is a complex and sensitive
task that requires specialized skills, understanding, and adequate
funding,” he said. “This is particularly true in bi- or multi-national
settings where the issues so often transcend the basic parameters of research.
I believe that, in the Akkar project, the research team had the skills and
expertise to do this, but we lacked adequate funding to carry the work
forward.”
Another
important point that Cadham raises is whether it would be proper for a
funding
agency to support the necessary lobbying efforts following the publishing of
research results. These efforts could easily be misrepresented by opposing
interests as political interference, Cadham fears. On the other hand, “local
researchers are too often seen or portrayed [by their governments] as
self-interested and looking to benefit only their own agencies or organizations.
The international partners, rightly or wrongly, are seen as more impartial and
are often more easily accorded a hearing,” said Cadham.
Regardless,
researchers have paved the way for policy-makers both in the Dead Sea basin and
the Akkar watershed. “We’ve done what researchers can do,” concluded Dr.
Mohamad Khawlie in Lebanon, driving into the sunset leaving Akkar toward his
home city of Beirut. “Now we need implementation.”
*
This is an edited version of an as yet unpublished article commissioned by
the International Development Research Center (IDRC) as a case study of its
People, Land and Water projects in the Middle East. It has been published with
the IDRC’s permission.
**
Nadia El-Awady is IslamOnline.net's managing science editor. Nadia won
first prize of the 2004 WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for All) Media
Award for her article The
Nile and its People: What Goes Around Comes Around. She is also the chair of
the World Federation of Science Journalists’ program committee and the
president of the Arab Association of Science Journalists. She has a bachelor's
degree in medicine from Cairo University and is currently studying for a masters
degree in journalism and mass communications at the American University in
Cairo. You can reach her at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net.
|
